Showing images on your Business App tablet (narrowcasting)

Narrowcasting is the slideshow that plays on the home screen of the Business App on a tablet. Your images fill the screen behind the home screen buttons and play one after the other, on a loop, for as long as the app is on the home screen. Phones don't show narrowcasting, only tablets.

Each slide is a single image. There's no separate text, logo or video on a slide, so anything you want contacts to see, such as your logo, an offer or a QR code for your sign-up form, has to be part of the image itself.

Add a slide

Go to Apps → Business App.
In the left menu, click Narrowcasting.
Click New slide, type a Slide name and click Create. The slide opens on the Basic tab.
Under Image, click Edit image, then Add image. If the slide already has an image, click the image to replace it. Pick an image, for example from My images or Brand kit, or click Upload image to add a new one, and click Add image. Click Save changes.
Under Details, click Edit details and set the Display time: the number of seconds the slide stays on screen before the next one. New slides start at 5 seconds. Click Save changes.

A new slide is Active as soon as you create it, even before it has an image. Until it has one, the tablet shows an empty screen for that slide's display time. Add the image straight away, or switch Active off under Edit details until the slide is ready.

Make the image fit the screen

The tablet fills the whole screen with the image and crops whatever doesn't fit, keeping the middle. The home screen buttons sit on top of the bottom part of the image. So:

Use an image in the same shape and orientation as the tablet's screen. A square image on a landscape tablet loses its top and bottom.
Keep anything important, especially a QR code or small text, near the middle and away from the bottom edge.
If the tablet is turned, the same image is cropped again for the new orientation. There's no separate portrait version, so design for the way the tablet is mounted.

Neither side of an uploaded image can be larger than 3000 px. See Image sizes and shapes: what to upload where.

Order, pause and delete slides

Order: the tablet plays slides in the order of the list on the Narrowcasting page, as long as you haven't sorted the list by a column. Drag a row by its handle to move it.
Pause: open the slide, click Edit details, switch off Active and click Save changes. The slide stays in the list but isn't shown, which is handy for a seasonal slide you'll use again.
Delete: open the slide, click Delete and click Delete again to confirm.

Once 50 slides are active, you can't create a new slide until you switch one off or delete one.

Show a slide only at certain times or places

Without filters, a slide shows on every tablet, all day. To limit it, open the slide and go to the Filters tab. Choose a Type:

Business profile: only on tablets in certain shops. Choose Select business profiles, then Any of the values to show it in the shops you pick, or None of the values to show it everywhere except there.
Device: only on certain tablets. Choose Select devices, then Any of the values or None of the values, and pick the devices.
Day and time: only at certain moments.
- On a day: pick a Day (one day of the week, Every day, Monday until friday or Saturday until sunday). Then under Time, pick The entire day or Between two times with a Start time and End time.
- Between two dates: from the start of the first day to the end of the last.

Click Save filter to add it.

Combining filters

Filters in the same group must all match: that's And. Use the + inside a group to add another condition, for example a shop and a time.

A new Filter group is an alternative: that's Or. The slide shows when every filter in at least one group matches. For example, one group for weekday mornings and another group for all of Saturday.

Days and times under On a day follow your account's time zone. A time range can't run past midnight, so for a slide from 22:00 to 2:00, make 2 groups: one from 22:00 to 23:59 and one from 0:00 to 2:00.

When the tablet shows your changes

The tablet doesn't pick up changes while it sits on the home screen. It loads your slides when the Business App opens, and again each time it comes back to the home screen after a scan or a transaction.

Filters are checked at that moment too, not continuously. A slide set for 9:00 to 12:00 only appears once the tablet loads its slides after 9:00, and keeps showing until the next load after 12:00. On a tablet that's only used as a display, close and reopen the app, or do a scan, to bring in the new time slot.

To see a change straight away, close the Business App on the tablet completely and open it again. Fetch the latest settings on the app's Settings screen doesn't reload slides.

For a tablet that's only used as a display, check that Can go in sleep mode is set to No in the tablet's configuration, so the screen stays on. No is the default. See Setting up a Business App configuration.

If something looks wrong

The old image is still showing. The tablet hasn't reloaded yet. Close the app completely and open it again.
Part of the image is cut off, or hidden behind the buttons. The image isn't the shape of the screen. Make a version in the screen's shape, with the important parts near the middle.
A slide never shows. Check that it's Active and has an image, then check its filters. An On a day filter follows your account's time zone. Also check that the tablet has reloaded since the slide's time slot started.
The screen goes empty between slides. An active slide has no image yet. Add one, or switch the slide off.
The tablet shows images you didn't add. Those are the standard images the tablet shows when none of your active slides match it right now, for example because you have no active slides or every slide is filtered out at this time.
You want to change your logo on the tablet. The Business App has no logo setting of its own. If your old logo is on the tablet, it's part of a slide's image: make a new image with the new logo and replace the slide's image.